


first time

by clairelutra (exosolarmoon), sharpshooting



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Developing Relationship, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Slice of Life, vaguely implied allurance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 13:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13705497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra, https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharpshooting/pseuds/sharpshooting
Summary: we're both looking for something we've been afraid to findit's easier to be broken, it's easier to hideIt takes Lance years to finally make Shiro laugh, but in his defense, Shiro hasn't laughed in far longer than that.





	first time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stirlingphoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stirlingphoenix/gifts).



The first time Lance made Shiro laugh— _really_ laugh, full-bellied and loud and honest, not just a muted chuckle or an amused smile—it was three years after the defeat of Zarkon.

In Lance's defense, Shiro honestly couldn't remember the last time he'd laughed at all. He _thought_ it might have been before everything—before Kerberos, before Voltron, before Zarkon—but those memories were faint, wispy things, and the only one he was really sure of was that one time his roommate in college had managed to make a pot of spaghetti _explode_ somehow.

And yet, somehow Lance curling a fist by his cheek and saying, "You know, _nya,_ " did it.

He was gasping for breath by the time the attack faded, and he looked up to find the whole team staring at him in shock.

Well. Shiro was pretty shocked himself.

Lance, completely baffled, tried, "...Nya?" and mimed the paw again.

Shiro's throat emitted a strange whistle as his lungs tried to force a laugh through it and he tried to force the laugh _back,_ and then he doubled down as the laugh won the fight.

"Dude," Pidge said wonderingly. _"Dude."_

Shiro concurred.

"I can't believe Shiro's laugh button is the _nya meme,_ " was Hunk's contribution to the discussion. "Nice going, Lance."

"Uhh," said Lance, breathless and warm, "y-yeah." He cleared his throat. "Thanks."

At the tone of his voice, Shiro's stomach gave a neat little flip under the spasms of laughter.

(Which... may have been why Shiro found it so funny. Lance had this way of leaving him unbalanced lately—a little more hesitant, a little more nervous, a little more giddy whenever he caught a smile, or heard him in the next room over. Good sense said, _He's attractive and you trust him, of course it wouldn't be so strange if you came by a crush,_ while the rest of him didn't want to think it was possible that he could be attracted to someone, anyone, _especially_ not one of his own paladins.)

The door to the seating area hissed open, revealing Allura and Coran, who both looked decidedly serious. "Paladins, we've just received a distress sig-... -nal... What's gotten into everyone?"

Lance turned to face the door. "Nya?" he said, a testing smirk tweaking his mouth as he repeated the 'nya' gesture.

Very slowly, Allura raised her hand to her own cheek, and cautiously mimicked him. "...Nya."

Lance looked like she'd just made his _entire life._

The whole scene was about as heartwarming as it was ridiculous, but Shiro still couldn't help the twinge of jealousy in his chest as he caught his breath.

"We're coming," he assured the two, and then, to the team, "Suit up. We need to get ready."

He got a nod from Hunk as Pidge hopped up off the couch. Lance snapped off a lazy salute, then got up to stretch the kinks out of his back.

Shiro hung back and pretended he wasn't admiring the sight.

He caught up to Lance as they all filed out to their lions, touching his shoulder before he could get too far ahead.

Lance looked back, sharp gaze going soft in question when he caught Shiro's eye.

Pushing aside the happy little pulseskip, Shiro said, "Thank you. I haven't laughed like that in a long time."

It wasn't quite what he wanted to say, but it was what he _should_ say. Lance's shoulder was warm, strong under his hand, and it twitched a little at the words.

...Surely Shiro was just imagining the blush on Lance's face?

"You should laugh more," Lance blurted, and then clapped a hand over his mouth. Through his fingers, he added, "I mean, like, it's great, hearing you laugh."

Shiro's own face felt hot as he processed the words. "...Ah."

"It's a nice laugh!" Lance said defensively. Shiro probably shouldn't have noticed the bright spark in his eyes quite as much as he did. "You sound... happy."

Shiro blinked once, twice, and then said, "...I am."

There was a funny tangle of realizations that accompanied the words, about just how _un_ happy he'd been before, how warm Lance made him feel sometimes, how age-old wounds were finally starting to stitch themselves up after all this time. They sank down into his being slowly, chased by another twinge in his chest, one that whispered insidious words to the tune of _you might be in over your head for him one day._

"...Shiro?"

And just like that, Shiro was back where he was supposed to be. Everything went back under the rug, compartmentalized for contemplation at another time. "Hm?"

Lance raised a hand into a fist beside his cheek and said, "...Nya."

_"Pfffft."_

The noise that escaped Shiro didn't really do justice to the sudden freefall that had gripped his gut, the feeling of having missed one crucial step and come by a cliff completely on accident.

He couldn't. He _couldn't._

Not here, not now, _not Lance_ —

And yet.

And _yet._

Lance was grinning brightly, delighted, almost-but-not-quite looking like Shiro had made his entire life, and Shiro didn't have any other explanation for why it felt like he was losing his grip on something precious.

"You have a nice laugh," Lance said again, fondly, and Shiro found heat racing up the sides of his face.

He coughed awkwardly into his fist, flustered and squashing down the wild urge to babble, and managed a strangled, "Thank you."

Shiro for smoothest man of the year? Maybe.

In the next life, perhaps.

Lance's smile grew, mischevious and _warm_ , and suddenly Shiro couldn't quite bear to look at him.

"We should suit up," he suggested instead, pretending it was professionalism and not near-panic that had him dodging Lance's gaze.

Lance flinched, shoulder jumping under Shiro's palm, always so expressive and so _open_ , and babbled, "Right, right, going!" and all Shiro could do was let him go and watch him leave.

Unsettled, Shiro trailed after him, splitting off to join his lion as Lance launched himself down his own chute.

Black's engines rumbled soothingly under his hands when he activated her systems, a cat's hymn for healing, and oh...

Laughter or no, Shiro thought he might need it.


End file.
